Dip-Dyed Feather Arrows

Friday, 24 January 2014

Todays post was an experiment I had that then evolved. Experiments like that are sometimes the best.
Last year I bought a pack of feathers to create a dreamcatcher that I ended up not creating for one reason or another and so have been wondering what to do with them ever since.

As love is the overwhelming theme around this time of year, I decided to turn them in to little arrows, with the help of a little food colouring:

Adding 4-5 drops of food colouring in to around 3cm of water, I dipped around 1/3 of my feather in to the water. As they are rather water-resistent, I had to swirl them a bit, making the feather wrap around itself into a tighter length at the ends which I could then get to rest under the water. Leave them for at least an hour - but I dipped mine in the water just before work and left them there all day:

The other benefit is that they dry incredibly quickly, so once they have taken to the colouring, rest them on top to drip-dry - this will take no time at all, or you can help it along with a hair dryer :)

Fluff out the ends, untangling the tops and the spread of colour will be a beautiful ombre effect - some areas may have taken the colour stronger than others and together, it will be a subtle, pretty pastel shade:

If you are after something stronger, I would recommend painting the colouring directly on to the feather and leaving to dry.

To finish the arrow off, I removed a few feathers from the bottom and cut some white glitter hearts as the arrow head [valentines is approaching, I just thought why not], fixing in place with tape :

To give them a little function, I glued a wooden clip to the back, making them perfect love note holders:

This has started a little 'quick project' obsession with me, and I'm sure I'll have more ideas involving feathers coming your way this year.